Major: Biology
Minor: Genetics
Class Year: 2028
High School: Rockwall High School
Advisors: Dr. Jennifer Dulin
Research Focus: Spinal Cord Injury, Stem Cell Treatment
Organizations and Programs: University Honors, Departmental (Biology) Honors, Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine Early Assurance Program
Awards and Distinctions: Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine Early Assurance Program Scholar, Summer 2025 University of Texas at Arlington Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Integrative Physiology (SURPINT) Research Grant Recipient, Dean’s Honors Roll (Fall 2025), Distinguished Student (Fall 2025), Third Best Poster Prize in the Undergraduate Category - Texas A&M Institute of Pharmacology and Neurotherapeutics Symposium
Experience: Research Internships, Research Conferences, Poster Presentations, Shadowing, Volunteering
Years Experience: 2
Other Activities: St. Mary's Catholic Church
Bio: Howdy! My name is Ashley Chiu, and I am a Class of 2028 biology major and genetics minor. I am in both University Honors and Departmental (Biology) Honors and hope to go to medical school for some sort of specialty (undecided yet, but maybe pulmonology :)). I absolutely love research, and I hope to be able to share my experiences with you guys!
I am part of Dr. Jennifer Dulin's spinal cord injury lab, which I joined in October 2024. Currently, I help Ph.D. candidate Vipin Jagrit explore how a combination of neural progenitor cell (NPC) transplantation and activity-based rehabilitation helps restore forelimb motor function in mice following cervical spinal cord injury through the reestablishment of synaptic connections. The objective of this research is to understand the mechanism behind this novel treatment that will hopefully help to eventually develop new treatments that patients can undergo to regain sensory functions following traumatic vehicular accidents. In this lab, I mainly help with histological analysis, which includes cardiac perfusions, dissections, immunofluorescent staining, immunofluorescent imaging, and cell quantification.
From December 2024 to December 2025, I also worked under Dr. Jennifer Woo at the University of Texas at Arlington. I helped explore the relationship between Vitamin D and preterm birth in African American women, who are statistically more likely to experience preterm birth/preeclampsia. I was a recipient of UT Arlington’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Integrative Physiology (SURPINT) research grant in Summer 2025. During this internship, I helped Dr. Woo perform a differential gene expression analysis in a cohort of pregnant African American women with a mix of Vitamin D deficiency and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (i.e. preeclampsia), and I presented my findings in a formal poster symposium at the end of the internship. I also did a joint podium presentation over this summer project at a research conference held by the International Society of Nurses in Genomics (ISONG) in Montreal, Canada, in November 2025. I presented a poster over Vitamin D’s role in regulating the expression of Interleukin-6, an inflammatory gene, in pregnant African American women, at the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) research conference last summer.